Spicy Hummus

A Few Hungry Girls

For years I really had no idea what hummus was, I just knew there was a special complexity of Mediterranean flavors involved! I actually wasn't a fan the first few times I'd had it, maybe my taste buds hadn't matured yet lol. 

Garbanzo beans aka chick peas was an ingredient I used quite often when I made curried chicken or Indian dishes. I'd seen a few recipes on baked chick peas but I haven't tried it yet! The reason I actually made hummus was I purchased some as a snack at work and I was soooo good with pita bread. Thus, my inspiration...

Chick peas are a relatively inexpensive food that can be found in any canned goods aisle. Personally, I'm to busy to be soaking beans and what not. I need food items that can be prepped easily with nutrious value so I will use canned food sometimes in place of raw beans. 

One ingredient that I wasn't familiar with was Tahini, apparently this is a huge part of making legit hummus and I'm glad I added it! Tahini is essentially ground sesame seeds and has a very unique flavor that I really couldn't pin point. Nonetheless I purchased it, the bottle was about $9 dollars in the peanut butter aisle. 

Quick Chick Pea facts: 

- is a legume 

- no cholesterol 

- low fat 

- good protien source

- lots of potassium 

- easily prepared and flavored 

- low cost

Pumpkin Spice Chia Bread

A Few Hungry Girls

If you read my post from a few weeks ago called "Cha Cha Cha Chia Seeds" I promised a few recipes with chia seeds and finally I delivered! Please excuse the subpar pics, I didn't have my good camera charged and I promised a few people I'd have the recipe up tonight! 

I've been wanting to make a pumpkin bread this month and I needed to incorporate chia seeds into a recipe. I did some research and found that you can actually use chia seeds to swap several ingredients in food! These food swaps include: oil, eggs, and thickeners for smoothies and shakes! In this recipe I swapped out oil for chia seeds.

Whiskey Apple Crisp

A Few Hungry Girls

 

My inspiration for this recipe was pure whim. I bought apple pie spice about 2 weeks ago for no good reason likely because I really needed pumpkin pie spice and it was right next to it and on sale. Originally I was going to use Honey Crisp apples until a sale associate at Publix introduced me to SweeTango apples. They are a hybrid mix between Honey Crisp apples and Zestar apples, they aren't as large or shiny as our beloved Honey Crisp but I actually thought they tasted better plus they were $1.69 per pound cheaper.

I really love apple crisp and I personally think a brown alcohol almost always pairs well with apples. So I whipped about a shots worth of whiskey in my apples AND my whipped topping. Oops hope no ones gets too tipsy, just kidding after baking the alcohol gets cooked off and all that remains is the flavor profile. Let me tell you something... I really did my thang with this dish! Here's how I made it...

Ingredients: 

5 Sweetart apples

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar 

1/4 cup agave nectar 

1 tablespoon apple pie spice 

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup butter 

3/4 cup flour 

1/4 cup white sugar 

1 shot + 1 tablespoon whiskey 

1 tub fat free whip cream 

Baked Garlic Plantain Chips

A Few Hungry Girls

I'd been wanting to make these for a while, I tried to fry them and it didn't turn out so well. They turned brown almost immediately but they did retain a hint more sweetness than baking them. They were also very greasy and mushy, likely because I cut the plantains to thick. I haven't invested in a mandolin yet...Christmas is coming right? 

I like these plantains because they are slightly sweet, salty, and garlicky!! They also have a nice crunch to them that hold up very well against heavy dips!

This is how I made them: 

Almond Butter Cups

I absolutely love Reese Cups, but they are highly processed and likely not made out of 'real' peanut butter (this is purely my opinion with no credible facts to this), nonetheless they are awesome! I made my own peanut butter a few months ago and it was great, I wasn't able to make it creamy like the PB you purchase at the store but it was very good with some jam and on biscuits.

So this weekend I figured I'd try to make almond butter and see if it was the same or similar process as with peanuts! Also, as my palette matured I am now able to eat and enjoy dark chocolate. Please don't say that dark chocolate is 'healthy' it's still chocolate guys! On the good side dark chocolate does contain antioxidants that help fight free radicals, it is also a much deeper and rich flavor so you are able to eat less! But once you taste these almond butter cups you may need to eat more than a few!!

Easy Pesto in a Presto

A lot of folks I meet are scared of pesto, between the green goop and complexity of its flavors I can see why. In fact I was one of those folks...

It wasn't until about my 10th trip to Bonefish (the best bread on the planet) did I finally say "hey, I can make this".  So I looked up all these recipes which all called for pine nuts. I had no idea what a pine nut was and honestly I still don't. I'm guessing something to do with a pine tree **Kanye Shrug**. Then I saw the price of a baby bag of pine nuts, the recipes only called for a tablespoon or so. I thought $7 for a teeny bag of nuts was crazy... I still do which is why I developed a recipe without them and it takes about 10 minutes start to finish. AND you can store it for later use!! 

You can cook all fancy in a snap!! 

Ingredients: 

3 cups fresh basil (don't smush them just to make it fit!)

1/4 cup Olive Oil 

3 garlic cloves 

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese 

1 tablespoon lemon juice 

Salt and pepper to taste 

Directions: 

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor. 

(I got a small one for about $20 or less and it works just fine if your budget friendly like me!)

2. Blend until smooth. Basil will likely remained slightly chopped. You don't want to make soup! 

3. Spread on bread, cook with chicken or pasta, or place in air tight container and refrigerate it! Lasts a few weeks... 

I used this recipe for my White Chicken Pizza! 

Stay hungry my friends...

Ray B.